Community leaders to weigh in on faith-based proposal to reduce youth violence

When a 16-year-old girl could be gunned down in an alley and no one will speak up or speak out to help solve the case, and when an 18-year-old boy could be stabbed to death by a man brazen enough to do so in front of his little boy, and in front of patrons at a business near downtown, then we must act.

We most consolidate public will for the strongest measures of law enforcement, while at the same time offering alternatives to incarceration to all youth who would seek to change and improve their own future -- and the future of our community.

READ THE FULL STORY ON FAITH-BASED PROPOSAL TO REDUCE YOUTH VIOLENCE

It takes resources to fight youth violence. Kids need a place to play. Kids need transportation. Kids need summer jobs. Activities, employment, training, guidance, mentoring, these are all valuable things that cost money to be done and done well.

We must find new streams of resources, and build more sustainable public-private partnerships if we are serious about achieving long-term reductions in violence.

For these reasons, president of the Norristown ministerium -- Bishop Richard S. McCray, recently convened a meeting of community leaders, where he and I unveiled a strategy to have the Boston, MA-based TenPoint come in and do training and capacity building of leaders from congregations and grassroots community organizations. The model is not necessarily new. What is new in recent memory, is that this is being initiated from the local leaders, and not an initiative of the state or the county.

We have come together -- council members, pastors, NAACP officials, school board members, NASD superintendent, police and community activists and we are working toward embracing a plan that places faith and community organizations and their leaders at the center of a new partnership paradigm. Police, the District Attorney's office and human services agencies will all be crucial allies. But now more than ever, initiatives must have their beginnings from within a community.

In an effort to be as transparent as possible, and to seek as much input as possible, I make available to the public, the plan released to community leaders on Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at the Faith & Hope Church of the Nazarene.

This plan calls for investments on the part of many different agencies, governmental entities, non-profits and individuals to work. The model proposed seeks to build a new coalition led by local faith and grassroots organizational leaders, including parents, and especially youth.

Read more details, download a copy of the plan and see videos explaining the TenPoint model and a video and a letter of endorsement from the Norristown Police Chief all by going to my councilman website.

Please comment and weigh in with your opinions!

PEACE!